Residents express relief after gang sweep

Thursday

Jul 1, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 15, 2012 at 12:03 PM

DAYTONA BEACH -- A grandmother stood in her front yard in a section of the city where guns and drugs are as common as heat and humidity in the summer.

She was somewhat relieved that 33 people authorities said sold drugs and guns to undercover federal agents over the last 20 months in the city's Weed and Seed area have been taken off the streets. Investigators are still looking for another 11 suspects -- affiliates of a Daytona Beach gang.

"Just drive by here between midnight and 4 a.m. and it's a big party house out here. It's goin' on, honey," said the longtime resident of the northern end of the mainland, who asked not to be identified for fear someone might "blow up" her house.

"You can buy whatever you want in this dope hole," the woman said.

That was evident over the last several months as federal undercover agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- with the help of Daytona Beach police -- purchased drugs and firearms from members of the 819 Boyz gang.

The 819 Boyz is an organized, longtime criminal street gang responsible for a number of home invasion robberies, carjackings and drug trafficking in Volusia County. Their moniker comes from a now-defunct apartment building at 819 South St. in the city.

After cases were built, criminal charges were secured and warrants were drawn up, federal agents and Daytona Beach investigators swept through the city Tuesday, picking up members of the 819 Boyz and their affiliates who sold the agents guns and drugs over the last several months.

The longtime investigations and the arrests that followed are "unprecedented" in the city, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.

These arrests are only phase 1 of the plan, said Chitwood, who promised that the next few weeks would prove to be a "long, hot summer" for criminals.

"There are several gangs in Daytona Beach that are thorns in our sides," the chief said. "(The 819 Boyz) are a loose organization of men and women who are here to rape, rob and pillage our community."

The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives initiative, led by the agency's Tampa field division and special agent Virginia O'Brien, was launched after Chitwood vented his frustration about drugs and firearms crimes in the city at a monthly police crime statistics meeting.

"I had no idea that an ATF agent was at the meeting," Chitwood said. "He came up to my office later that morning and asked me what they could do to help."

That's when Operation 819 was born. Over the last 20 months, O'Brien said her undercover agents gained the trust of 819 members and infiltrated the large gang. A pile of police reports released Wednesday detail the transactions that occurred between investigators and gang members during that time.

One of the reports -- which focuses on the arrest of 22-year-old Jabriel Mott who faces state firearms and drug charges -- shows the audacity and extent of the 819 Boyz.

In one instance, the undercover agent tells Mott about committing a home invasion robbery. Mott tells the agent that he has "other associates" that would "work with him to conduct a home invasion," the report shows. Mott then supplied the names of several people that he said are close and were once a "robbery crew."

Another report portrays how easily the suspects obtained guns and cocaine. The undercover agent wanted to purchase $350 -- or 7 grams -- of cocaine, the arrest report for Odell Brown Jr. of Harrington Street shows. Brown's associate -- described only as "PJ" -- produced the cocaine. When the agent asked for another "yard of crack cocaine," PJ pulled it out of a bag he had on his lap, the report shows.

The agent then looked at a sawed-off shotgun in a car occupied by both PJ and Odell, the report shows. When the agent asked whether the gun "was clean," PJ replied that it had "no murders on it," the report shows.

At a press conference Wednesday, O'Brien and Chitwood showed off a display of 33 of the 78 weapons purchased during the undercover operations. Of the 78 weapons purchased, 20 were reported stolen, Chitwood said. One of those included an 870 Remington shotgun, which was taken from the marked cruiser of a Volusia County sheriff's deputy in May 2008. The cruiser was parked in the Deltona driveway of the deputy's home.

None of these incidents surprised Ed Parsley, another resident who has lived in the Weed and Seed area for the last two years.

"I appreciate this a lot," Parsley said, looking down his street Wednesday afternoon. "It's about time somebody did something."

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